I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 3663
To amend the SOAR Act.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY25, 2023
Mr. M
OOLENAAR(for himself and Mr. SESSIONS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
A BILL
To amend the SOAR Act.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘SOAR Permanent Au-4
thorization Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE SOAR ACT. 6
The Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act 7
(division C of Public Law 112–10) is amended— 8
(1) in section 3007 (sec. 38–1853.07 D.C. Offi-9
cial Code)— 10
(A) in subsection (a)(5)(A)(i), by striking 11
subclause (I) and inserting the following: 12
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‘‘(I) is fully accredited by an ac-1
crediting body with jurisdiction in the 2
District of Columbia or that is recog-3
nized by the Student and Visitor Ex-4
change English Language Program 5
administered by U.S. Immigration 6
and Customs Enforcement; or’’; 7
(B) by striking subsection (c) and redesig-8
nating subsection (d) as subsection (c); 9
(C) in subsection (b)— 10
(i) in the subsection heading, by strik-11
ing ‘‘
ANDPARENTALASSISTANCE’’ and in-12
serting ‘‘, P
ARENTALASSISTANCE, AND 13
S
TUDENTACADEMICASSISTANCE’’; 14
(ii) in the matter preceding paragraph 15
(1), by striking ‘‘$2,000,000’’ and insert-16
ing ‘‘$2,200,000’’; and 17
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(3) The expenses of providing tutoring service 20
to participating eligible students that need additional 21
academic assistance. If there are insufficient funds 22
to provide tutoring services to all such students in 23
a year, the eligible entity shall give priority in such 24
year to students who previously attended an elemen-25
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tary school or secondary school identified as one of 1
the lowest-performing schools under the District of 2
Columbia’s accountability system.’’; and 3
(D) in subsection (c), as redesignated by 4
subparagraph (B)— 5
(i) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking 6
‘‘subsections (b) and (c)’’ and inserting 7
‘‘subsection (b)’’; and 8
(ii) in paragraph (3), by striking 9
‘‘subsections (b) and (c)’’ and inserting 10
‘‘subsection (b)’’; 11
(2) in section 3008(h) (sec. 38–1853.08(h) 12
D.C. Official Code)— 13
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘section 14
3009(a)(2)(A)(i)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 15
3009(a)’’; 16
(B) by striking paragraph (2) and insert-17
ing the following: 18
‘‘(2) A
DMINISTRATION OF TESTS .—The Insti-19
tute of Education Sciences may administer assess-20
ments to students participating in the evaluation 21
under section 3009(a) for the purpose of conducting 22
the evaluation under such section.’’; and 23
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘the na-24
tionally norm-referenced standardized test de-25
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scribed in paragraph (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘a na-1
tionally norm-referenced standardized test’’; 2
(3) in section 3009(a) (sec. 38–1853.09(a) D.C. 3
Official Code)— 4
(A) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘an-5
nually’’ and inserting ‘‘regularly’’; 6
(B) in paragraph (2)— 7
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 8
clause (i) and inserting the following: 9
‘‘(i) is rigorous; and’’; and 10
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 11
‘‘impact of the program’’ and all that fol-12
lows through the end of the subparagraph 13
and inserting ‘‘impact of the program on 14
academic progress and educational attain-15
ment.’’; 16
(C) in paragraph (3)— 17
(i) in the paragraph heading, by strik-18
ing ‘‘
ON EDUCATION’’ and inserting ‘‘OF 19
EDUCATION’’; 20
(ii) in subparagraph (A)— 21
(I) by inserting ‘‘the academic 22
progress of’’ after ‘‘assess’’; and 23
(II) by striking ‘‘in each of 24
grades 3’’ and all that follows through 25
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the end of the subparagraph and in-1
serting ‘‘; and’’; 2
(iii) by striking subparagraph (B); 3
and 4
(iv) by redesignating subparagraph 5
(C) as subparagraph (B); and 6
(D) in paragraph (4)— 7
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 8
(I) by striking ‘‘A comparison of 9
the academic achievement of partici-10
pating eligible students who use an 11
opportunity scholarship on the meas-12
urements described in paragraph 13
(3)(B) to the academic achievement’’ 14
and inserting ‘‘The academic progress 15
of participating eligible students who 16
use an opportunity scholarship com-17
pared to the academic progress’’; and 18
(II) by inserting ‘‘, which may in-19
clude students’’ after ‘‘students with 20
similar backgrounds’’; 21
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 22
‘‘increasing the satisfaction of such parents 23
and students with their choice’’ and insert-24
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ing ‘‘those parents’ and students’ satisfac-1
tion with the program’’; 2
(iii) by striking subparagraph (D) 3
through (F) and inserting the following: 4
‘‘(D) The high school graduation rates, 5
college enrollment rates, college persistence 6
rates, and college graduation rates of partici-7
pating eligible students who use an opportunity 8
scholarship compared with the rates of public 9
school students described in subparagraph (A), 10
to the extent practicable. 11
‘‘(E) The college enrollment rates, college 12
persistence rates, and college graduation rates 13
of students who participated in the program as 14
the result of winning the Opportunity Scholar-15
ship Program lottery compared to the enroll-16
ment, persistence, and graduation rates for stu-17
dents who entered but did not win such lottery 18
and who, as a result, served as the control 19
group for previous evaluations of the program 20
under this division. Nothing in this subpara-21
graph may be construed to waive section 22
3004(a)(3)(A)(iii) with respect to any such stu-23
dent. 24
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‘‘(F) The safety of the schools attended by 1
participating eligible students who use an op-2
portunity scholarship compared with the schools 3
attended by public school students described in 4
subparagraph (A), to the extent practicable.’’; 5
and 6
(iv) in subparagraph (G), by striking 7
‘‘achievement’’ and inserting ‘‘progress’’; 8
and 9
(4) in section 3014 (sec. 38–1853.14, D.C. Of-10
ficial Code)— 11
(A) in subsection (a), in the matter pre-12
ceding paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘$60,000,000 13
for fiscal year 2012 and for each fiscal year 14
through fiscal year 2023’’ and inserting 15
‘‘$75,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 and for each 16
succeeding fiscal year’’; and 17
(B) in subsection (b), by striking 18
‘‘$60,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$75,000,000’’. 19
Æ
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